Trolley link to La Jolla spikes to $1.7 billion

Leaders express concern about $460m increase, but still back new line

San Diego  Cost estimates for the proposed 11-mile Trolley line extension from Old Town to La Jolla have soared from $1.24 billion to $1.7 billion over the past two years, as capital costs have mounted, transit officials said this week.

The roughly $460 million increase is due to plans for extra trolley cars, rail bridges, parking and an added station that were either unknown or not included until the first detailed engineering work started two years ago, officials said.

While several political leaders said they’re frustrated by the price spike, they also said support remains strong for what’s known as the Mid-Coast trolley line, which could receive its final environmental approvals late next year and start construction by 2015.

The biggest piece of the increase is $142 million needed for 22 additional trolley cars, said Jim Linthicum, a top planner with the San Diego Association of Governments, the agency planning the trolley extension. The extra cars will help meet the greater transit demand forecasted along San Diego’s mid-coast corridor, as shown in recent studies, he added.

The second largest jump is the $135 million for the “escalation of construction, right-of-way, engineering and contingency” costs, according to the agency. Those cover expenses such as the added rail bridges needed to carry trolleys along and over Interstate 5 and through the UC San Diego campus, Linthicum said.

Other cost drivers include the up to $82 million for more parking than first anticipated and $18 million to $20 million for a potential ninth trolley station along the line, at the VA Medical Center in La Jolla, Linthicum added.

San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts, one of the trolley extension’s biggest supporters, said he’s worried about the jump in price.

“I hate the cost increase, and I think we’re going to do better (on the actual cost),” said the supervisor, who chairs an advisory group for the project. “But the line is still worth doing.”

Roberts said he’s asked federal regulators to allow the overlapping of the project’s design and construction phases, which would speed it up and save money.

The project’s timeline calls for construction to start in 2015 and the line to open in 2018. That’s contingent on its final environmental reports receiving approval in late 2013.

SANDAG will hold public forums early next year once a set of draft environmental reports is released.

Lani Lutar, president of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, said she had “mixed feelings” about the cost increases.

On the one hand, she said, the additional investment in trolley cars, parking and potentially a new station should result in greater “return on investment” or use of the line.